Imagine not having to worry about those boots you really, really want (I have a thing about boots), but you don't feel comfortable about the price? Or are you (we, at the moment) justified in considering buying a new sofa, when yours (ours) is - well - you can still sit on it. Just. All those decisions about THINGS. How much should you give to charity? Can you really go out for a meal when people (even in this country at the moment) haven't got enough to eat? I wander down the aisles at Sinsburys, deciding what to buy. Do I go for a BOGOF, which saves money but we may not eat/use it all? Decisions, decisions...
And no clutter! All that - stuff we accumulate, most of which we don't need. All those papers, old clothes, the things of (dubious) sentimental value. Nuns don't have stuff. They're not allowed to. (When one of my sons arrived to move in with his then girlfriend, his stuff filled a whole van. When she saw it, the poor girl wept.)
And no money. Wonderful! We went bankrupt, many years ago, and I've never quite got over it. Nuns can't go bankrupt. They don't (as I used to) have to stand trembling by the hole in the wall, waiting for it to tell them if they have any money in the account.
Possessions are a terrible encumbrance. I think it was Leonard Cheshire who, in later life, gave up nearly all of his, and devoted himself to others. I wish I had his courage...
